Your say

AMA spokesman David Mountain says Healthdirect is not cost-effective and he has warned that serious symptoms can be missed over the phone.

He says the service is also sometimes responsible for sending too many people to hospitals.

"They're so desperate not to miss these occasional tragic cases that in fact they send almost everything to a doctor or an emergency department and therefore actually increase the pressure on services," he said.

He says Healthdirect funding could be better spent elsewhere.

"You could provide much more after-hours services, we could provide more resources for emergency departments, we could certainly provide much more access to GPs," Mr Mountain said.

Healthdirect says it is reviewing the coroner's findings and will respond in coming weeks.